Former President Jimmy Carter has been awarded the Nobel Peace
Prize "for his decades of untiring effort to find peaceful
solutions to international conflicts, to advance democracy and human
rights, and to promote economic and social development," the
Nobel committee announced Friday, Oct. 11, in Oslo, Norway.

Carter, according to news reports, received the news at home in
Plains, Ga., at 4:30 a.m., Oct. 11. He was scheduled to hold a press
conference in the south Georgia town at noon.

"I’m deeply grateful for this honor," Carter said.
"I want to thank the Nobel Committee and the many people at
the Carter Center who have worked side by side with me and my wife,
Rosalynn, to promote peace and human rights."

"On behalf of everyone at Emory University, where President
Carter has served for many years as a member of the faculty, we
are immensely proud that the Nobel Peace Prize has gone to this
messenger and apostle of peace and understanding," said Emory
President Bill Chace. "We have watched for years as this native
son of Georgia has, since his presidency, advanced, in many different
ways, a vision of healthy understanding among the nations and the
people of the world."

After he left the White House in January 1981, Carter began working
with Emory to develop the Carter Center, a not-for-profit, nongovernmental
organization committed to working for human rights and the alleviation
of human suffering around the world. In its 20 years, the Carter
Center has been involved in efforts all around the globe to prevent
and resolve conflict, enhance freedom and democracy and improve
health.

"People everywhere share the same dream of a caring international
community that prevents war and oppression," Carter said in
his Nobel statement. "During the past two decades, as Rosalynn
and I traveled around the world for the work of our center, my concept
of human rights has grown to include not only the right to live
in peace, but also to adequate health care, shelter, food and to
economic opportunity.

"I hope this award reflects a universal acceptance and even
embrace of this broad-based concept of human rights," Carter
said. "This honor serves as an inspiration not only to us but
also to suffering people around the world, and I accept it on their
behalf."

Carter has been nominated several times for the award, which carries
with it a $1 million prize. The 2002 field included a record 156
candidates, including 117 individuals and 39 groups.

The
Carter Center operates in partnership with Emory
as a separately chartered extension of the University. The center
is independently governed by a board of trustees that includes Chace.
Emory faculty serve as liaisons to the Carter Center's core programs,
and most of the 120 undergraduate and graduate students who intern
each year at the center come from Emory. Chace also has accompanied
Carter Center election-inspection teams to Israel and Peru.

"When he goes forth from The Carter Center and from this campus
to wage peace, President Carter does so because his experiences
have taught him that war is not necessarily the best answer to conflict,
but rational discussion and respect for others can be," Chace
said. "He served his country well as president but he is now
being recognized for all that he has so superbly done since that
presidency."

The full text of the Nobel committee’s citation to Carter
is available here.